Humanities Aut 1 · 2026–27 · Enquiry: How can we explain historical agency while recognising context, collaboration and limits?
| Key Word | Definition |
|---|---|
| Agency | Power to choose and act |
| Context | Circumstances enabling/limiting action |
| Distributed agency | Achievement spread across many actors |
| Attribution | Crediting precisely who did what |
| Collaboration | Named partners in the records |
| Enabler | A context that made action possible |
1) Motive, condition or trigger: 'the cousin's letter'?
2) Give the three-part proof that someone mattered.
3) Why avoid 'they all…'?
4) Who opened Middlesbrough's first ironworks?
1) Counterfactual test in one line.
2) Define agency.
3) Define context.
4) 'Great man' history — what's the objection?
1) Decisive vs contributory — one line each.
2) Why do 'lone genius' stories usually collapse on evidence?
3) How can a person's context BOTH enable and limit them? Example.
4) Rewrite with distributed agency: 'Vaughan found the ironstone.'
Key Question: Vaughan's statue says he 'discovered' the Eston ironstone. The mine records name John Marley and a crew of miners. Who shaped Britain here?
Groups: 🎯 AGENCY (someone's choice), 🌍 CONTEXT (circumstances). Sort: Bolckow risks his capital on the Tees, The railway already reaches the site, Marley's crew keeps boring the hills, Britain's hunger for iron rails, A family decides to leave Mayo, Steamship fares fall in the 1850s, Union men call the first meeting, The law now permits combination
Draw lines to match:
🏭 Henry Bolckow · 📜 John Marley · ⛏️ The boring crews · 👪 Migrant households · 🧺 Boarding-house keepers · 🌍 The rail-hungry market
Capital and the decision to build on the Tees · Proved the ironstone underground · The labour that ran the works · Mining expertise that targeted the seam · Demand that made it all pay · Housed and fed the workforce
choice, chance, boom, crew, enabled, because
"Their choice was…" | "Their context gave…" | "Both were needed because…"
Agency: the choice, evidenced. Context: the enabler, verbed. Collaborator: named from records. Verdict: both-needed sentence.
"___ targeted; ___ proved; ___ ran; the market paid" | "The statue's simplification costs us ___" | "A fairer inscription would read: ___"
| Side | Test question | Local example |
|---|---|---|
| 🎯 AGENCY | Did someone CHOOSE this? | Bolckow risks his capital on the Tees |
| 🌍 CONTEXT | Was this already true, whoever turned up? | The railway already reaches the site |
| 🤝 COLLABORATION | Who else had to act for this to work? | Marley’s crew keeps boring the hills |
⚡ The GROW move: neither side alone builds an ironworks. “Bolckow’s gamble worked because the moment was ready for it” — that clause is the balance.
1. Name the named — the leaders and agents the records identify.
2. Count the unnamed — “a crew of miners”, “thousands of households”. Quantified, not vanished.
3. Verb the context — “the boom enabled…”, “the law permitted…”. Contexts act too.
| Actor | Evidenced contribution |
|---|---|
| 🏭 Henry Bolckow | Capital, and the decision to build on the Tees |
| 📜 John Marley | Mining expertise that targeted the seam |
| ⛏️ The boring crews | Proved the ironstone underground |
| 👪 Migrant households | The labour that ran the works |
| 🧺 Boarding-house keepers | Housed and fed the workforce |
| 🌍 The rail-hungry market | Demand that made it all pay |
🛑 AGENCY OR CONTEXT? USE THE SWAP TEST.
Ask: if a completely different person had been standing there, would this still be true?
STILL TRUE → CONTEXT 🌍 (the railway was there regardless)
ONLY BECAUSE OF THEM → AGENCY 🎯 (someone had to risk the money)
❓ IF THE CONTEXT DID IT, DOES THE PERSON STILL MATTER?
Yes. Conditions were the same for everyone — and most people did not act. That is exactly why the choice counts.
The strong sentence holds both: “___ chose to ___, at a moment when ___.” Erasing either half is the weaker answer.
🔤 Words I might need: agency · context · collaboration · attribution · enabled · permitted · unnamed · credit
Balance Card
1) My actor: ______________
2) "Their choice was…"
3) "Their context gave…"
4) Read the pair aloud. Partner initials: ____
Balanced Agency Paragraph
1) Agency sentence (evidenced):
2) Context sentence (context as the verb's subject):
3) Collaborator named + their contribution:
4) 'Both were needed because…':
The Distributed Account
1) The ironstone story with ALL actors attributed:
2) 'Does the statue lie?' — your argued verdict:
3) A fairer inscription in under 15 words:
1) Define agency in one line.
2) Who does the statue credit — and who do the records add?
3) Complete: 'The boom ___ their choices.'
Space → Voice → Audience → Influence. The adult’s first job is Space: regulate before you educate.
| Space | The People Wall grows sideways this week — every named figure gains a 'who else?' branch you can extend. |
| Voice | Nominate one 'vanished' contributor from any story you know — one evidence line earns them a card. |
| Audience | Your distributed-agency accounts go to the Head of School's display case request — real corridor, real readers. |
| Influence | Class ruling: does OUR display name the unnamed ('a crew of miners') or stay silent? Your vote is policy. |
Closing the loop: this one ends on paper — your own hand, or your words scribed by an adult. Saying it aloud starts the loop; writing it is what closes it. Pass is always allowed.
What I said, and what it changed:
Keep with your book / folder.
| Pupil name: | Date: |
| WWW (What Went Well): | |
| EBI (Even Better If): | |
| Level worked at: Supported / Standard / Stretch | Evidence filed: Yes / Not yet |
| Authorship — what I chose or decided myself: | |
| Support given — prepared / scribed / modelled / hand-over-hand: | |
| Pupil response — my next step: | |
1) Why must context share the sentence with agency?
2) Give one 'count the unnamed' phrase.
3) Balance Bolckow in one sentence.
1) What makes 'great man' history collapse under records?
2) 'The statue lies.' Defend or refute in two lines.
3) How does this week's balance sharpen Week 3's cause-weighting?
GROW Humanities · Week 4 · People Who Shaped Britain
Add your class once — names stay on this device only, and every Made by Matt lesson on it shares the list. Band each pupil so questions are tier-matched.
Pass is always allowed — passing still counts as taking part.